For those who are interested in it: the description of the picture ("The River of Time, ot the Emblematic Representation of the World History", a kind of allegoric map) that hung in Derzhavin's room and was the source of his inspiration can be found in "Last Verses", a wonderful article by Natan Eidelman: http://vivovoco.rsl.ru/VV/PAPERS/NYE/LASTLINE.HTM (text in Russian). Alas, I failed to find in the Internet the image of the map itself.
 
Funny, in his article (written in 1985) Eidelman calls Oxyrynchus (the Greek name of Pemdje, aka el-Bahnasa, a town in Upper Egypt, about 160 km south-west of Cairo, an archaeological site where so many papirus texts dating from the time of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods of Egyptian history were discovered) "the greatest rubbish dump in the world". The Internet (where one can find so many gems, precious stones and spurious stones) seems to be an even greater one these days. I occasionally enjoy rummaging in it.
 
Alexey Sklyarenko
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.